Vantage Point took my breath away

If you haven't watched the Vantage Point, you're missing half of your life.


Yes, the Vantage Point has a very simple and common storyline. And it's always a thumbs up to put the effort in delivering its simple story through a real unforeseen twist, sound effects, furious car chase--a real action!

Still showing in theaters nationwide! Don't tend to buy dvd, either fake or original, to watch this movie!! Swear, you won't afford to miss the sound effects and all! Syempre, I want you to feel somewhat heart-attacked with the sounds of the several bombs and gunshots in the movie. And also, I want you to have those paranoia of thinking that the cinema you're in might be blasted by a bomb anytime given that you're in the Philippines. XD You'll never know that the seat your butt is laid on has a bomb under it.

...Marketing Insight No. 2.1 (?)

I guess I was wrong when I said Buy-the-book has it all, the nice storename, great color of signboard, and the price. I thought, I really thought, I would buy Feng Shui Detective first before RJ Ledesma's book, but I found myself going inside National Bookstore to purchase Lies My Yaya Should Have Told Me yesterday. What was the flaw?

Of course, I researched first the Feng Shui Detective before I would buy it. It wasn't really a famous book. So I needed to read some reviews of it online to see if it would have my money's worth. But because Buy-the-book can only be found in Sm Manila and I prefer going to RP-Ermita when I want to leave my lungga (and that is to watch a movie with some friend/s), the "Lies..." book is more reachable than pure English hardbound books of Buy-The-Book. So afterall, branching out also makes it vital in one's business.

Mass production

Don't argue with me when I say Filipinos are very obedient. Don't be blinded by the continuously breaking of rules by the Filipino men that made Bayani Fernando spread all these pink and blue footbridges, fences, posters, and so on around Metro Manila.

In accordance to God's words, Filipinos surely went fruitful and multiplied. They fill up this country with children who are supposed to be loved and cared for, but are more or less starved to death.

More often than not, they continue to live in the confines of the saying "the more, the merrier." But who would have thoought that these people might actually believe that they could be like TomKat or Brangelina who were paid $4M and $2M, respectively, for having their babies' first pictures exposed to public exclusively through People's magazine? Or be like Joe Madden and Nicole Richie with the more humble price of $1M? Or be like Jamie Lynn Spears with nobody-cares-how-much-the-baby-would-cost-coz-who-is-she-anyway? Who knows? Everyone could live like H'wood stars if they want to.

Books Before Boys

I was surfing the net and came across a book review on a newly released book by a newbie Filipino writer we will call RJ Ledesma. For those who do not know, the author is said to be the "Royal-Tru-Orange" TVC guy. So, was that like a decade ago? No offense peeps, but the name doesn't ring a bell to me.

Despite that I do not know the guy, RJ Ledesma's Lies My Yaya Should Have Told Me actually got my attention. With the menacing look of RJ Ledesma's picture on the front of the orange-covered book, I have considered myself to put it on the list of the things to buy. The book is actually a compilation of essays on his insights on dating, courtships and the like. The review I read cited some of RJ Ledesma's witty wisecracks from the book, which made it all special to me. =)

*****

Marketing Insight No. 2

In desperate need for a tripod for my 360degrees panoramic shot in my ADRAPHY (Advertising Photography) class, I went impulsively to SM Manila to buy one. Before leaving the mall to proceed to the photoshoot, I saw an attractive store I haven't seen since my last visit in the mall, which was just last month.

It wasn't just the strong color of the signboard, but the store name itself puts strong impact on the passerby people. BUY-THE-BOOK is obviously derived from the famous phrase "By the book." Aside from the homonym/spoof strategy on the brandname, it even asks.demands on the people to purchase the books it's selling. With this, BUY-THE-BOOK is able to attract and draw interest from the people and even make it possible and easier to act on purchasing its products since the price of their hardbound purely English books is very much affordable. Evidently, it made me want to buy "Feng Shui Detective" first before "Lies My Yaya Should Have Told Me."

Identity Crisis in Nestle Factory Visit

I guess Nestle succeeded once again on their marketing strategy having more than 20 persons to attend a factory tour two days before the heart's day. And I was one of those people who eagerly wore green shirt and paid P170 to the sponsoring org in our school for the transportation to visit Nestle's factory in Aurora Blvd., QC.

Nestle has four factories here in the Philippines. Each factory manufactures different lines/products of the company. For Aurora branch for instance, they manufacture ice cream and chilled beverages.

The list of flavors of Nestle ice cream is overflowing yet Nestle still manages to create more recipes and flavors for ice cream especially now that summer is near. It seems like Nestle is not contented to just stick on creating recipes for their company since it also manufactures other ice cream sold in the country such as McDo, Jollibee, Burger King, Dairy Queen and Enchanted Kingdom. But of course, the recipes for these fastfood chains are customized according to their will. Nestle is just the one to "cook" the ice cream for them. No wonder McDo's sundae is whiter than Jollibee's. Anyhow, known for being an international company, Nestle still adopts different recipes for each country. Of course, the market will always be the determinant of the strategies, recipes and so on. However, there is only one research team for Nestle. And that would be the Nestle-Switzerland.


After the spoonfeeding of information, we were, of course, accompanied to see the factory in their viewdeck. Surrendering the camera phones and digital cameras to the receptionist before the tour started wasn't really useful (I hoped that my phone will be lost during their possession so that I could ask for the dealership in exchange of my lost cellphone >:) ). There weren't much things to see--just some machines that makes my favorite twin popsies and double dutch. After that, we were given a freebie--an ice cream, of course!

If I can't get enough of one ice cream from them, then I would have to go there every Saturday to volunteer myself for a taste test. Nestle conducts this every week, but slots have to be reserved ahead of time. You can call the office and look for Miss Hannah to register.

Closing Remarks: If Tweety Bird is male despite of its effortless curly eyelashes, what would be the gender of Chuckie, the ugly cow for Nestle's chocolate drink? Why?

Zero Interest

Marketing Insight No. 1

Filipino-Chinese compose a big percentage in the Philippine population. Fil-Chi are Henry Sy, John Gokongwei and Lucio Tan. They are rich and famous and kidnap-able. Given thesesociety-given descriptions of Filipino-Chinese, they surely are a good market for real estate.

If you will notice, there are lots of condominiums already on their pre-selling or construction stages. (The industry of real estate must be thankful for the lowered interest rates on loans caused by the strengthening of the Philippine Peso.) And I’ve gone to some model units of condominiums around the metro. The units were amazingly beautiful (and reflective in their price). Even so, they still lack appeal to the Fil-Chi market. The floor plans of these condominiums neglect to consider the application of feng shui, even just the basic ones. One of the condominiums I’ve gone to had its door fronting the door of another unit. Even that simple mistake could make the whole beautiful condominium somewhat off and push away the interest of the potential buyers. And feng shui is not just believed by Chinese alone. I know Filipinos by blood who believe in this superstition.